U N chief wants to split peacekeeping department

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 26 (Reuters) U N Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon proposed splitting the burgeoning peacekeeping department in two and downgraded the disarmament department to an office, according to a memo obtained by Reuters.

The proposals have been discussed informally for several weeks but Ban now put them in writing to regional groups for approval by the 192-member General Assembly ''as early as possible.'' The United Nations has 18 peacekeeping missions fielding nearly 100,000 soldiers and civilians around the world, mainly in Africa.

Ban in the memo said the ''realignment offers the potential to improve the efficiency and coherence of support provided to the field and to ensure effective oversight.'' Under his proposal, the current Department of Peacekeeping Operations would continue to plan, direct and manage field operations.

But a new department called the Department of Field Support would provide services on personnel, finance, procurement, logistics, communication, information technology and other administrative and general management issues.

The new department would report to two U N officials.

It would get direction from the current peacekeeping department, now headed by Frenchman Jean-Marie Guehenno. But general administrative and management issues would be handled by the new deputy secretary-general, Asha-Rose Migiro, the former foreign minister of Tanzania, Ban said.

Several European delegates said earlier that they thought the plan was feasible militarily because of the rapid growth in peacekeeping operations. But some U N officials recalled a similar arrangement abolished as unworkable in the mid-1990s by former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

The unity of command, Ban said, would be maintained through special representatives in the field who would report to him through the peacekeeping department.

Ban, who took office January 1, said he did not anticipate extra costs.

DISARMAMENT Ban had originally suggested that the small Department of Disarmament Affairs, now headed by Japan's Nobuaki Tanaka, be merged into political affairs, expected to be headed by B. Lynn Pascoe, now U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia.

But his memo said it would be headed instead by a ''high representative'' reporting directly to his office, rather than an undersecretary-general. He also changed the name from ''department'' to ''office,'' which carries less weight.

Ban said there was a need for new impetus on several disarmament issues and a ''need for a greater role and personal involvement of the secretary-general in the field of disarmament and nonproliferation.'' Developing nations in the Group of 77, representing some 133 members, had objected earlier in the month to merging political affairs and disarmament, particularly if it would be headed by a nuclear power, such as the United States, which objected to a treaty banning atomic tests.

The group of 77, headed by Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram will meet next Tuesday to discuss Ban's plans, diplomats said.

REUTERS PDS RN0707